[B-Greek] John 18:37

Harold Holmyard hholmyard at ont.com
Mon Jan 8 07:57:32 EST 2007


Randall Buth wrote:
>  >18:37	EIPEN OUN AUTW O PILATOS, OUKOUN BASILEUS EI SU ; APEKRIQH O
> IHSOUS, SU LEGEIS OTI BASILEUS EIMI.  EGW EIS TOUTO GEGENNHMAI KAI
> EIS TOUTO ELHLUQA EIS TON KOSMON, INA MARTURHSW TH ALHQEINAS
> This exchange between Pilate and Jesus has always seemed odd to me
> because it seems so stilted.  My range of reading in greek is limited
> to the NT, LXX, and a limited amount of other attic and koine
> sources.  I'm sure someone else on the list can point to an example
> from other texts of how this conversation should read.  The OUKOUN
> ( not therefore ?) is used only here in the NT and is puzzling to
> me.  Everyone I have read reads it as , "So, you are a king..."  Is
> there another example of this kind of use somewhere else?  Why does
> Jesus respond SU LEGEIS OTI BASILEUS EIMI  with a sort of ( to me at
> least) indirect answer?  Obviously I am not familiar with this kind
> of conversation. What are the nuances behind the words?
> David Rollins>
>
> OUKOUN is a conversational word that has developed and picked up a  
> meaning that might be thought the opposite of it etymology. As a  
> positive question word it became a positive response. Isn't it? > So  
> it is. You will find the word frequent in philosophic discourses like  
> Epictetus. 
HH: LSJ lists two different words under the letters OUKOUN, using 
different accentuation for each. One stems, they say, from an Ionic word 
or spelling, and the other from a Doric word or spelling.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard



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